Worshipers at a Pentecostal church in Malawi sustained minor injuries after a naughty 15-year-old boy caused a stampede.

The faithful bolted out of the church, falling over each other after the alleged rascal, hidden from their view, pretended to be ‘the devil’ and scared them stiff.

It all began after worshipers closed their eyes and began chorusing a prayer before the sermon could begin. The boy is said to have tiptoed and picked the extra microphone at the lectern before hiding behind two loudspeakers.

All of sudden, the churchgoers heard a booming voice with devilish guttural sounds rasping through the church public address system, announcing that they were now in hell and the voice speaking belonged to the devil himself.

After a loud silence rent the air, the ‘devil’ ordered all those who truly believe in God to raise their hands, to which none responded. Instead, everyone was looking at each other with fear written all over their faces.

The ‘devil’ then announced that everyone sits down on the floor awaiting further instructions.

As the scared congregates shook and wet their pants, the pastor bolted out of the church at maximum speed before they followed suit.

The sudden frenzied rush, coupled with “shetani ashindwe” shouts, created a fine mess, making some of the faithful to think it was the much-talked about biblical end time.

It was the sight of elders jogging away as fast as they could, women and children wailing for help with other scared worshipers fervently begging for mercy from the ‘devil’ that tickled the offending boy, making him to laugh uncontrollably.

It was then that the church technicians who maintain the music instruments realized they had been played. They looked around only to discover the extra microphone was missing and suspected the offending character was hiding within the church. The technicians took to the pulpit and announced that the incident was actually a hoax.

At this point, those who had taken off and had been watching the drama unfold from a safe distance returned. The pastor took the microphone and began speaking in tongues and mumbling gibberish as if to curse the offending character.

“Raghashanda… ragalabanda… ropokolomashekele….,” the pastor went on as he denounced the devil, calling him a liar. “Riswa! Riswa! Shetani ashindwe!” he cursed.

As few brave members trooped back, the boy who was hiding between two giant speakers rose up still laughing off his head. He was almost roughed up, had it not been the timely intervention of older churchgoers who pleaded with angry parishioners.

They told them to forgive the boy for he didn’t know what he was doing. Meanwhile, in his defence, he claimed he was only testing the parishioners’ faith in God. The sermon went on uninterrupted afterwards.
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